# Peek-a-View — Read-only photo gallery

> Read-only photo gallery app to prevent accidental photo deletion. (iPhone/iPad app by Limitliss LLC.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/peek-a-view/id1491554407 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Limitliss LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1455924924)
- Category: Photo & Video, Entertainment
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 298 App Store ratings · 112 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.4 · 4 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2020-02-05
- Data updated: 2026-09-04
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/peek-a-view/id1491554407/reviews.md

## What is Peek?

Save your photos from accidental — or deliberate! — deletion by toddlers, clients, or anyone that can't be trusted.

Peek-a-View is a read-only photo gallery. Using Peek-a-View, you can always feel safe sharing your photos with anyone, because there is literally no way to have Peek-a-View delete your photos. In fact, Peek-a-View does not write ANY data back to your photo library.

When paired with the Guided Access feature on iOS and iPadOS, you can lock your device into Peek-a-View, ensuring that the only thing that device can do is look at photos, until you decide otherwise.

By default, Peek-a-View will show your most recent photos in your photo gallery, but it can be configured to only show a specific album. Furthermore, access to Peek-a-View's settings is automatically restricted when Guided Access is started.

Peek-a-View will show you your 20 most recent photos for free; a one-time in-app purchase will remove that limitation.

Peek-a-View fully supports Dark Mode, Dynamic Type, Live Photos, videos, and animated GIFs. With purchase, it also supports several alternative icons.

Born from a trip to an amusement park with a very independent toddler, Peek-a-View was written so that my wife and I can give our phones to our precocious two-year-old and know that she won't accidentally delete any of our precious memories. 

Without Peek-a-View, we'd have to hope that she didn't figure out how to delete anything, or spend time fiddling with the Guided Access settings to block out the delete features on the Photos app. 

With Peek-a-View, we can simply open the app, start Guided Access, and hand her the phone. No deletion, no modifications, no worries.

Privacy Policy: https://www.caseyliss.com/peek-a-view-privacy

## Key features

- Read-only photo gallery
- Prevents accidental photo deletion
- No data modification
- Integrates with iOS Guided Access
- Option to display specific albums
- Supports Live Photos, videos, and GIFs
- Dark Mode and Dynamic Type support

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unlock All Photos | $4.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Peek?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🚀 Fast and responsive
- 🔒 Secure way to share photos
- 👍 Great for kids and toddlers
- 👍 Useful for professional settings
- 👍 Simple and intuitive interface

**Cons**

- 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
- 🔍 Thumbnail cropping and resolution issues
- 🔍 Limited zoom and panning functionality
- 🔊 Annoying audio playback behavior

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Crashes when swiping through photos
- Thumbnail previews don't match actual photos
- Pinch-to-zoom not working as expected

**Most requested features**

- Option to create custom photo albums
- Ability to select specific people/faces to view
- Disable auto-play for videos and Live Photos
- Improved zoom and panning controls

## Recent user reviews (10 of 112)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/peek-a-view/id1491554407/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Just what I needed!!!

*2026-02-05*

This app allows me to hand my chosen phone to a stranger, so they can see photos while holding my phone. You might think of that as an odd thing to do, but I live in a unique place, and at gatherings, people want to see pictures. I want to share SOME photos, and I don’t feel like sitting next to someone and holding my phone is necessary, or I wouldn’t be sharing in the first place, but it’s easy to end up in the wrong place with a fat thumb. I have even chosen the wrong album to share. I only want to share specific photos, and this app solves the problem. I set up Guided Access to further manage it, too. What a help that is!  Guided Access alone in iPhones doesn’t protect photos, nor does it keep a person out of other albums. This app does. I’d give it more stars, if I could!!!

### 5/5 — Perfect little app

*2025-12-31*

Solves the problem of showing people photos you don’t mean to. Easy to use and solves a problem.

### 1/5 — Pinch to zoom is broken

*2025-07-08, version 2025.2*

You can pinch to zoom but you can’t choose where it zooms, neither can you pan once zoomed. It always zooms into the left side of the photo. So unless you happen to want to zoom into that part of the photo you will feel frustrated. If this is fixed I will update my review and actually I would strongly consider purchasing the app.

### 5/5 — Highly recommend!

*2025-05-01*

Love this read-only app. Has made handing over my device to our disabled child my safer and so much easier to manage!

### 5/5 — So happy with this app!

*2025-04-29*

This has been such a helpful app for our disabled daughter who loves watching videos of her adventures in life. Peek-a-view keeps her locked into the app and ensures she can’t delete or edit the videos. I wish this was around when all my kids were little as it would have been such an easy way to let them explore photos and videos safely.

### 1/5 — abandonware

*2024-02-13, version 2022.2*

don't give this guy your money

### 5/5 — Finally fixed the bug where it couldn’t see albums

*2023-08-19*

1. I’m a paid user
2. Couldn’t use the feature to pick a different album than Recent for years
3. Now it started working

Casey was very kind and apologetic when I reached out, but we had been unable to tell what was wrong. Now it’s working and I’m happy!

### 1/5 — Too buggy and no update in sight

*2023-06-10*

This app also looks and works so differently from the stock Photos app that kids will immediately demand the original back

### 3/5 — Pretty good; interactions are a little finicky

*2023-05-30*

Both me and my toddler find ourselves swiping photos away when we try to swipe left and right between photos. My phone also seems to get hot when using the app — maybe it’s related to the loading the live previews?

I’d love an option for a more traditional grid as the photo cropping is odd. And a black background when viewing photos.

### 5/5 — Simple. Awesome.

*2023-04-30*

My toddler loves looking at photos of family (and himself). Great to have a safe way to hand him my phone.

## Frequently asked questions about Peek

### What does Peek-a-View do?

Peek-a-View is a read-only photo gallery application designed to prevent accidental or deliberate deletion of your photos. It ensures that when you share your photos through this app, no modifications or deletions can occur, providing a safe way to view and share your memories.

### How does Peek-a-View prevent photo deletion?

The app functions as a read-only gallery, meaning it does not write any data back to your device's photo library. This fundamental design prevents any user, including yourself or others you share the device with, from deleting photos through the app.

### Is Peek-a-View free to use?

The app offers a free version that displays your 20 most recent photos. To remove this limitation and access your entire photo library, a one-time in-app purchase is required. This purchase also unlocks alternative app icons.

### What devices is Peek-a-View compatible with?

Peek-a-View is designed for iOS and iPadOS devices. It fully supports features like Dark Mode, Dynamic Type, Live Photos, videos, and animated GIFs, ensuring a seamless experience across compatible Apple devices.

### What are the main use cases for Peek-a-View?

The primary use case is to safely share photos with others, especially children, without the fear of them accidentally deleting precious memories. It's also useful for professionals who need to share portfolios or clients with images without risking data loss.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2025.2 — 2025-05-06

This version fixes some wonkiness around rotation, particularly around still images.

### 2025.1 — 2025-04-26

- Add new setting for tap-to-mute on videos. By default, this is on, and you can tap anywhere on the screen to mute/unmute a video. If you turn tap-to-mute off, you can still mute/unmute using the speaker icon.
- Fix live photos being super zoomed on the grid
- Fix link to Myke's website in the About screen

### 2022.2 — 2022-08-02

Add a new instructive video to show how to make a shortcut to automatically start Guided Access. You can access this from Settings or from the second page of onboarding, for new users, from the second page of onboarding.

### 2022.1 — 2022-05-09

Some freshening up, mostly in Settings.

### 2020.11 — 2020-09-16

Supports new features in iOS, including limiting Peek-a-View to only being able to read some photos from your photo library.

## Apps similar to Peek

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Photoscope: Best Photo Picker](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/photoscope-best-photo-picker/id6474432385) | 4.7 (135) | Free | Photo & Video |
| [Image Search Engine FindMySnap](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/image-search-engine-findmysnap/id6463011496) | 3.8 (10) | Free | Photo & Video |
| [Cassette: Home Video Player](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cassette-home-video-player/id6475023019) | 4.9 (198) | Free | Photo & Video |
| [SplitCrop](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/splitcrop/id1472752853) | 4.9 (54) | Free | Photo & Video |
| [OWC Drive Speed](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/owc-drive-speed/id6470703928) | 4.5 (22) | Free | Photo & Video |
| [No Peeking: Lock your photos](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/no-peeking-lock-your-photos/id1523046926) | 4.1 (9) | Free | Photo & Video |

## More apps by Limitliss LLC

- [MaskerAid](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/maskeraid/id1590163828)
- [Callsheet: Find Cast & Crew](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/callsheet-find-cast-and-crew/id1672356376)

All apps by Limitliss LLC: https://appshunter.io/developer/1455924924

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-04.*